Finding Jack
by exSurreal
Summary: (8 Apr: NEW VERSION, Part 1) Jack gives his daughter, Rose, to Will and Elizabeth. Sixteen years later, she finds the truth and sets out to find her real father. Mostly OC story with brief cameo from original cast, and NO JACK PAIRINGS.
1. Prologue

Title: Finding Jack (yes, smart me. Geoffrey Rush/Finding Nemo, etc. etc.)

Author: Satan's Sidekick, aka Connie

Summary: Rose is Jack's daughter. She just doesn't know it yet.

Disclaimers: Pirates of the Caribbean and co. belongs to Disney, and I think that's the short of it.

Author's Note: This is a complete rehash of the previous version. As in, I have vaguely the same plotline and characters, but written differently. I have tried to make this as unMary-Sue as possible, but I've probably self inserted me anyway. So sue me.

~**~

Prologue

Her mother had always scolded her for reading under candlelight.

The book was familiar, always the same, with the ever likeable Captain Jack Sparrow and his adventures on the high seas. Rose had tried her hardest to keep it safe, but it was quite impossible after she had started taking it everywhere. Some of the pages were ripped and dirty, and the binding was breaking. She supposed that it didn't really matter all that much since she'd committed most of it to memory anyway.

Her parents had read it to her as a child, and on her tenth birthday, her mother had given it to her. Phillip, on the other hand, got a real sword which Rose had been insanely jealous about at the time, but after she realised that her brother had restrictions imposed on his present, and she had not, she cheered up considerably. Rose honestly didn't understand why her parents bothered putting the weapon away, though she'd long suspected that it was because of her, and not Phillip.

She ran her fingers over the spine and the fading gold leaf. She could trace the letters "Captain Jack Sparrow" by J. Gibbs embossed into it.

There were two very curious things about the book. First, was not the book itself, but rather the reaction her mother, and to a lesser level, her father had when they saw her reading it. It was a mixture of anxiousness, sadness, and perhaps even resignation. Rose found it distracting and had stopped reading anything in front of her parents a few years ago, unless it was absolutely essential. And of course, she would never express her longing to meet a pirate and even become one. 

The second, and more interesting fact about the book, was the scrawl that was written inside the cover. In blotched, misspelt writing, it read: "Congratulasions Young William and Miss Swan".

She had asked her mother about it once, to which her mother, an usually loud spoken woman, even if Rose did say so herself, replied, "It's always been there," which wasn't really an answer, but looked upset enough that Rose never had the courage to ask again.

It was all very mysterious.

She turned the page carefully, hanging onto every word as if she were reading it for the first time and not the hundredth. 

Captain Jack watched with dismay as his mutinous first mate, Barbossa sailed away with his ship on his way to the Isle de Muerta. However, when men of lesser calibre would have done away with themselves with their remaining shot, this was not the infamous Jack Sparrow. While his ship was still in sight, he waded into the shallows, and there he stood for three days and three nights, using the secrets of the East that had been taught to him by monks to survive without water, food or shelter.

While Rose wasn't quite stupid enough to believe everything that had been written in the book, there was no doubt in the pirate's existence. And as much as she loved Uncle James, she thought it sad that he was so single-minded about getting rid of pirates and hanging them. And of course she'd heard the rumours about Jack Sparrow being in Port Royale – before her time of course – but it wasn't as if her parents had something to do with it. More like he escaped from the dungeons and commandeered a ship.

Rose sighed and looked out the open window. She always left her windows open, and when the breeze blew in, she could smell the unmistakeable saltiness of the sea. If she had a ship, or even just a boat, she could get out of this dull, dreary town. She'd have an adventure, and drink rum with pirates. A boat was freedom.

The ocean was freedom.


	2. Part 1

A/N: My historical accuracy sucks. Therefore, do not complain about it, because I'm aware of it already. It's about the characters, after all.

~**~

Part 1

Many stories have been told about Captain Jack Sparrow, but not any of them were known for certain until after the mutiny of the Black Pearl. It has been said that he was a pirate from the English Channel, blown completely off course by a storm. Others say that he was a merchant sailor, turned outlaw and gone mad. There have even been stories that he is fact a French nobleman, exiled from his country. 

~**~

The problem with being a lady is that it's never proper for you to do anything interesting.

And the problem with having a brother is that it's always proper for _him_ to do everything that's interesting.

"Rose. Pay attention."

But the good thing about having a blacksmith and terrific swordsman as a father is that he'll teach you how to spar anyway. Even if your brother is allowed to practise twice as long as you every week, when you have to sit at home to learn French.

"J'ai, tu as, il a, nous avons, vous avez, ils ont," Rose muttered.

"Rose," her father said more sharply, though he didn't shout. He never shouted. She suspected that it was against his code of honour or something akin to that. "If you don't want to learn, go home."

She didn't even blink. "Of course I want to learn, father. I'm sorry, could you please repeat that?" She even added in a smile for good measure.

Phillip pursed his lips, but didn't say anything.

"Move your arm to the right, otherwise you aren't defending anything." Rose moved it obediently. "Perfect. Now do you remember the parry I taught you last week?"

"Of course I do," nearly adding in, because I practise every bloody night so one day I can finally beat Phillip's bloated head in. But she didn't say that. After all, she was a respected lady who didn't swear, or know one end of a sword from another.

Rose initiated the attack. She always did, because for some strange reason Phillip would never attack her. She suspected that it was against _his_ code of honour or something akin to that. As usual, the spar started well, but it always ended with her hitting the wall, hitting the ground, hitting her head, and everywhere else except Phillip.

"Good work," Phillip said, once Rose had put on her dress again, which was a torture device after a shirt, pants and boots. Of course, no one outside her family knew about her swordplay lessons. "Your form has really improved," he said with a serious look.

Rose wondered whether her brother actually meant to smirk, but it was probably against his code of honour or something akin to that.

~**~

Rose was a popular topic for Port Royale, though she never knew it. Upper class ladies sat around gossiping about her rowdy behaviour, her lack of manners, and worse of all, of how she always associated herself with "that Irish fisherboy".

That's what they called Donal. 

He would overhear them say, "At least her mother has some sense of propriety, although marrying that Will Turner, what could have gotten into her head?" And then, "Imagine that, marrying a blacksmith. Well at least the children will have anvils aplenty." Laughter.

He felt sorry for the Turners, even if they weren't aware of the gossip. They were honest, trusting folk, even if they hadn't been completely truthful about Rose's parentage. Donal had been tempted to tell her himself countless times, especially when she'd burst into his hut, gushing about pirates and Jack Sparrow. 

He smiled at the idea of telling that she was Jack's daughter, but who was he to interfere?

Donal continued patching up his net with a bone needle.

He was just an Irish fisherboy after all.

~**~

Rose's principle was that if you wanted a private conversation, you went to a private place. You didn't hold a private conversation in a rather public dining room where your daughter who was supposed to be asleep might just happen to walk past and overhear you. Especially when you are talking about aforementioned daughter.

Her mother was sounding particularly angry today, and she was talking in a higher pitch, which usually meant that she was very, very angry. Rose winced as she heard it, and felt very sorry for her father.

"I won't let him take her. He has no right. We-" she lowered her voice, "_We_ brought her up, not Jack. _We_ were the ones who sacrificed our reputation. How dare he even _try_ to claim her?" she hissed.

"You knew it was going to happen." Her father's voice was calm in comparison, but she could tell that he was worried too.

Pause. "I'm going to tell James. Jack Sparrow can be hanged for all I care."

"He's our friend."

"She's our daughter! I can't believe you're just letting Jack take her."

"I'm not _letting_ Jack do anything. Rose is his daughter, and he has a right to see her."

Well, Rose hadn't seen that coming.

~**~

Phillip woke to someone's hand clapped over his mouth. His eyes widened as his sister leaned over him, lamp in one hand, finger over her lips to signal to him to be quiet.

"Don't wake the house," she whispered, and lifted her hand.

Phillip yawned and sat up. "What's going on? What time is it?"

"Phillip, have you ever wondered why I don't look anything like you, but we're twins?" she asked eagerly. 

"Rose, what in God's name are you talking about?" His sister was fully dressed in her training gear, and there was something different about her. He was still half asleep and it took him another few seconds to register that most of her hair had been hacked off. "Rose! What have you done-"

She clapped her hand over his mouth again. "Shh. Just listen. I am Captain Jack Sparrow's daughter. I overheard mother and father talking about it." Her eyes were wide with excitement when she said it, and Phillip thought she had gone mad. In fact, he moved his head back, and expressed it in so many words.

"I'm not a madwoman Phillip!" Rose protested. "It's true. I heard mother and father..."

He cut her off. "I can't believe you woke me at this ungodly hour to tell me about some sort of dream you had. And your hair!" he said disgustedly. "I don't know what's wrong with you, Rose, but I suggest you go back to sleep. Lord knows what mother and father will say in the morning." He settled back into his bed. 

Rose set her mouth into a determined line. "Fine. If you won't believe me, I'll find a way to get to Tortuga myself."

The lamp went out and Phillip heard her walk out of his room, hopefully into her own. Pirates, he thought, what silliness.

~**~

"Phillip!" 

He blinked a few times as his mother her hair everywhere, her nightgown in a mess, flurried into his room and opened the curtains.

"What's going on?"

"Your sister's gone."

It took him a minute to register this.

"Rose? Gone?" He remembered the encounter last night and wondered if it had been a dream. 

"She's missing. She hasn't left a note...she hasn't left anything." His mother was in a state of despair, and her eyes were rimmed with red from crying. "Your father's gone into the town to see if she's turned up anywhere. I don't know what's happened to her. She's cut her hair and taken the jewellery case." Elizabeth looked at him. "Do you know where she would have gone?"

Not a dream, Phillip decided.

"Last night," he began hesitantly, "Last night she woke me with the strange notion - well, I assumed it was from a dream – and she seemed to believe that she'd overheard the two of you talking..."

A look of horror came over Elizabeth's face.

"...and that she was Jack Sparrow's daughter." He stopped when he saw his mother. "You cannot be serious."

~**~

"Tortuga," Will repeated. "She said that? She said she was going to Tortuga?"

"Well that's what I heard," Phillip said, still bewildered that his sister was, in fact, not his sister at all. 

"She must have read it in that bloody book," his father said, and Phillip was quite shocked about it because he's never heard his father curse. In fact, that morning had been one of discoveries. Not only had his father cursed several times over, but also his mother and he found that his sister had a famous pirate as a father. Though they hadn't explained it all properly to him, there was the implication that his father, the epitome of stability, Will Turner, had done some not so savoury things in his past. 

Surprisingly, Phillip found it all very exciting.

"_The Merry Widow_ left early this morning – she must have asked them to take her to Tortuga in exchange for that jewellery box. It would be an easy job to sail there on the way to the Spanish settlements."

"I'm sure I can convince James to let us use on of his smaller ships, but we would need the bearings." She looked her husband.

"I've been there once!" he protested.

Phillip bit his lip. "I might know someone..."

~**~

Donal didn't like Phillip. But Phillip didn't like Donal either, so it was a standoff. However, they both cared for Rose, and they were prepared to push their differences aside for a common goal, though Donal had an ulterior motive for doing so.

He had lost Rose, when he'd been told sternly to make sure she'd be safe. With her innocence intact. In fact, he'd also been threatened to be marooned, beaten, jabbed and given other grievous bodily harm if he should fail to defend, keep and protect her. Oh, and if he laid even one finger on her body...

Jack was going to _kill_ him.


End file.
